At Wilson's Creek in Missouri, a bold Union attack is thrown back and General Nathaniel Lyon killed

08/10/1861

Union General Nathaniel Lyon made a bold attack with his 5000 men on a Confederate force twice his size under General Sterling Price near Wilson's Creek in Missouri. A combined frontal attack and encirclement almost succeeded but when Lyon was killed at the height of the fighting, the direct assault broke down and Price's troops, reinforced with units from Arkansas under General Ben McCulloch, held. The Union lost 1,317 Union dead, wounded, or missing and the Confederacy had 2,804 total casualties. Price now controlled south-west Missouri. (By John Osborne)

Source Citation:

Charles P. Roland, An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War (New York: McGraw Hill, 2002), 57.